Below is basic tutorial on how to create your own decal bitmaps for use in the Half-Life multiplayer game using Paint Shop Pro. If you would like to read Valve's information on decals included in the Half-Life README file, please do so.

This tutorial uses Paint Shop Pro.

1. Open Paint Shop Pro.
2. Open Image File.
3. Crop the Image.
4. Make the Image Square.
5. Convert the Image to Greyscale.
6. Resize the Image.
7. Invert the Image Colors.
8. Save the Image as a Bitmap.

1. Open Paint Shop Pro or other paint program.

   
   

2. Open the file which contains the image you would like to use.

   
   
   
   Your original image
   
   
   
   *TOP*
   
   
   

3. Crop the Image.

   Initially, you will need to crop your image. Since the decal must be small (64x64 pixels), you will probably want to minimize the amount of the white space around your image. The closer you can get to having the image fill the square, the larger it will be.
   
   
   • With the selection tool, select the part of the image you would like to use, excluding as much whitespace as possible.
     
     
   
   Selecting the crop area
   
   
   
   • Press [SHIFT-R] to crop the image. This procedure can also be performed by using the cropping tool to select the image and double-clicking on the selected area.
   
   
   
   Cropped image
   
   
   
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4. Make the Image Square.

   Since the decal must be 64x64, you will need the image to be square. To make the image square, you will need to make sure the dimensions are equal.
   
   
   • You can view the image dimensions by selecting View|Image Information from the menu bar or by pressing [SHIFT-I].
     
     
   
   Determining image size through the Image Information dialog
   
   
   
   • Match the dimensions by selecting Image|Add Borders from the menu bar. The dimensions are displayed width by height in pixels. Our goal is to increase the smaller dimension to match the larger. In this example, the image is 123 x 135 pixels. Therefore, the image is 12 pixels taller than it is wide. To add 12 pixels to the width, we will add 6 pixels to both the right and left sides of the image. If the difference between the dimensions is not divisible by two, add the extra pixel to whichever side looks better. If the palette background color is not set to the image background color, you will need to fill in the edges using the fill tool.
     
     

     Original w/ mismatched border color		Borders corrected with Fill tool

     
     
     Note: If the background of your image is not a solid color (e.g. a pattern or texture) you may either want to touch it up w/ Paint Shop tools such as the clone brush, or you may simply want to crop the selection square to begin with.
   
   
   
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5. Convert the Image to Greyscale.

   Next, we will need to convert the image to greyscale. In Paint Shop Pro, images can only be resampled (resized) if the palette is true color (24-bit) or greyscale. If the image is true color (e.g. a JPEG) you may resize the image (see the next step) before converting it to greyscale.
   The trouble with greyscale is that the image may lose some of its contrast. For simple two-color line drawings, this probably will not be a problem. But for an image with multiple shades, you may want to make some adjustments.
   
   Also, you will need to make sure the image background is white once the greyscale is applied if you don't want a square of paint around your decal when you use it. If the background isn't too dark, you can use the brightness/contrast control to lighten it, as explained below.
   
   
   
   • To start, select Color|Grey Scale from the menu bar.
     The grayscaled image is a fairly good representation of what your decal will look like in Half-Life. If the grayscaled image looks acceptable, you may not have to make any adjustments.
     
     
   
   Image converted to greyscale
   
   
   If the image is darker or blander than it should be, you can try to improve it by adjusting the contrast and brightness.
   
   
   • It is a good idea to undo the greyscale before adjusting the image. Select Edit|Undo from the menu bar or press [CTRL-Z] to undo.
   • Select Colors|Adjust|Brightness/Contrast or press [SHIFT-B] to bring up the Brightness/Contrast dialogue box.
     
     
   
   Improving detail with the Brightness/Contrast dialog
   
   
   
   
   • Increase the brightness and contrast to improve the definition of lines and shading. The proof box will display the effects of the adjustments made. If lines start to break up or blend in to the background, or any other loss of definition occurs, you will need to decrease your adjustments (usually contrast) until the image is clear. Press OK when you are satisfied with the results.
   • Reapply the greyscale to see if the adjustments have helped. If not, try to readjust the settings until the balance is right.
   
   
   
   
   Image with corrected contrast
   
   
   Of course, some images may look bad in greyscale despite any adjustments. You may want to try other approaches, such as using the fill or color-replacement tool to introduce a better contrast of colors, or tracing lines with the paint brush tool to thicken them.
   
   
   
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6. Resize the Image.

   We made the image square so it wouldn't become distorted when it was resized. Now we resize the image to 64x64 pixels. In Paint Shop Pro, this operation is called resampling.
   
   
   • Select Image|Resize from the menu bar or press [SHIFT-S] to bring up the Resize dialogue box.
     
     
     
     Using the Resize Dialog
     
     
     
   • Select the Pixel Size option and type "64" in both the Width and Height fields.
     
   • For the Resize Type option, indicate Smart Size or Bilinear Resample. These methods tend to produce smoother images.
     
   • If the "Maintain Aspect Ratio . . ." box is checked, the image must be square in order to resize to 64 x64. If the image is not square, uncheck the box and the image will be resized with some distortion.
     
   • Press OK when you are finished.
     
     
   
   Image resized to 64x64 pixels
   
   
   
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7. Invert the Image Colors.

   When you use decals in Half-Life, the white areas of the image will be the most pronounced, while the black parts will not show up. That is, the intensity of the decal in the game is based on how light it is in the image file. For this reason, we will need to invert the image colors.
   
   • Simply Choose Colors|Negative Image from the menu bar. Your image will become inverted, like a negative from a photograph (imagine that!).
   • If you skipped the greyscale part before resizing, you will need to convert the image to greyscale now (explained in step 5). It shouldn't matter whether you greyscale the image before inverting it or after.
   
   
   
   
   Final image
   (after inverting colors)
   
   You may decide that your decal looks better without being inverted. That's perfectly OK; just remember that the way the image file looks now is not how it appears in the game.
   
   
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8. Save the Image as a Bitmap.

   You have finished making your decal image! The decal must be saved as a Windows bitmap before it can be used.
   
   
   • To do this, select File|Save As... from the menu bar or press [F12]. When the Save As... dialogue box comes up, select "Windows or OS/2 Bitmap (*.bmp)" in the Save As Type field. Enter the name of your decal and press save.
   
   
   
   Saving the image as a bitmap

That's it! You're finished. Now put your decal to use. For instructions on how to use your decal, refer back to the tips page.

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